In thermal transfer recording, pressing and heating transfer with a thermal head has so far been widely practiced. In recent years, however, there has come to be used, as a method capable of forming images with much higher resolution, a thermal transfer recording method comprising a laser beam irradiation on a thermal transfer recording material to convert the irradiated laser beam into heat necessary to transfer images. This laser thermal transfer recording method, which is termed the heat mode thermal transfer recording method, can sharply raise the resolution as compared with the thermal transfer recording method which uses a thermal head to supply heat energy, because laser beams supplied as energy can be condensed to several microns in diameter.
However, when used in forming color images, this heat mode thermal transfer recording method has a problem that a localized large amount of energy given by a laser beam induces transfer or scatter of a light-heat converting material contained in a heat mode thermal transfer recording material and thereby causes a color turbidness in a transferred image.
Though Japanese Pat. O.P.I. Pub. Nos. 2074/1990, 34891/1991 and 36094/1991 disclose techniques on light-heat converting materials, these techniques all use sublimation dyes and their basic constituents transfer only dyes; moreover, there is no clear description whether or not a light-heat converting layer is present, not to mention use of water-soluble colorants.